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Branded Entertainment vs. Viral Videos

Every brand wants its content to go viral, but that’s like winning the lottery in the crowded online media world. Online video expert Alex Rowland explains how brands can find the sweet spot between viral video and branded entertainment – and why they shouldn’t try.

There’s a lot of confusion among brands and content creators about the difference between branded entertainment and viral video. Most brands want their videos to go viral, but these are two distinct terms in the online video ecosystem. The differences can be subtle but they become apparent when we define each one.

Branded entertainment

The Possibility Shop is produced by Disney and sponsored by Clorox

Typically, branded entertainment takes the form of a serialized or episodic Web show that receives some or all of its financing through a brand investment. Branded entertainment can certainly “go viral” if the content is high quality and the brand provides enough financing to help promote it. But branded entertainment is usually designed to secure audience through paid syndication, licensing arrangements or revenue share deals.

These videos are very unlikely to go viral. They may have provided value for the viewer by informing or entertaining them but they don’t elicit the emotional connection that compels people to rewatch the videos or pass them on to friends and followers.

Viral videos

On the other hand, viral videos are usually one-off video clips that have been designed for repeated viewing and sharing. These videos rarely establish a narrative and can be as short as 15 seconds long. Viral videos are sometimes launched with the assistance of a brand, but they are more likely to be produced by an amateur or by a studio for TV and repurposed for the Web.

A relatively early example is “Lazy Sunday” (no longer available on YouTube), a mock music video often credited as YouTube’s first true viral hit. In this case, the video was a Saturday Night Live skit that had been uploaded illegally to YouTube. But if you look at the top 100 most viewed videos on YouTube (and filter out the music videos), the vast majority of the all-time biggest viral hits are produced by amateurs (early examples include “The Evolution of Dance” and “Chocolate Rain”. In other words, budget often had very little to do with the video’s ultimate success.

Again, the reason these videos have gone viral is that they have made someone laugh, cry or squint in disbelief. They get shared because viewers want to pass on these emotions with someone else they care about.

A more recent example is “The Force”, a Volkswagen Superbowl ad starring a pint-size Darth Vader. The ad demonstrates that an emotionally resonant video combined with some major media dollars can generate 25 million online video views in a week.

Yes, this aired during the biggest television event in America, but the same agency, Deutsch LA, produced another Superbowl ad for the Volkswagen Beetle that has yet to generate 500,000 views on YouTube.

Why viral videos are not a content strategy

The lesson is that viral success is hard to predict and even harder to replicate. Even in the case of Improv Everywhere, some of their videos do better than others and none are guaranteed to go viral.

In fact, the more videos they produce, the more likely the market will become saturated with the concept, diminishing our emotional response. Part of what makes a video go viral in the first place is that the user feels like they have discovered something new and that by sharing the video with friends they are sharing that discovery.

Viral videos depend upon the perfect combination of creative genius, market timing and an emotionally engaged audience.In other words, you have to get lucky. Betting on a video going viral is a great way to set up your campaign for disappointment.

Branded entertainment is all about brands and content creators working together to tell a brand’s story in a compelling, organic way. Great branded content can achieve this goal and create value for brand and consumer whether it goes viral or not.

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I think agencies and clients alike are caught guilty of bandying the term ‘viral’ around as if it could apply to any video as long as it is uploaded to YouTube and promoted through social media. I think you hit the nail on the head when you describe the human notion of ‘discovery’ in sharing a viral video. It reminds me of the cigar guy photo in the sense that it was a side story that people wanted to share, not the main event.

Brands will experience the best long-term success by trying to build 1,000 true fans rather than trying to reach 1,000,000 people in one, fleeting moment.

We at Sparksheet will look into adding a like button, just so I can like your comment.

Social media is about engagement, that is 2 way communication, talking and listening equally. It will be interesting to see how the concept of LTV (life-time value) plays into social media strategy once it matures.

Excellent piece! I got to witness this tricky relationship in action some time ago when a friend of mine wrote an article then uploaded some complementary video content to the magazine’s YouTube page. The video went viral, tons of hits and links, but as soon as the magazine’s marketing person was alerted to its success she opted to… take it down. She felt he wasn’t properly ‘cashing in’ on its success, so she re-edited it, adding the magazine’s branding to the entire thing, including new opening titles and a branded watermark throughout. Needless to say, not only did she sever all the online links that had been made to the video, it never quite picked up steam again once it was reposted a few days later, in its new format.

Sounds like your coming from an SEO perspective, but I think it’s “esaier” to get a video noticed than text (in the short run). For SEO, you are judged on the quality of your site, how long it been around, quality of other posts etc. With video, you upload it to Youtube, with the right keywords and titles you have a better chance of getting noticed. What do you think?

Also, what do you mean by video not “lasting forever”, doesn’t it have the same life as any other content? If it’s online, it exists, right?

Great article and nice job breaking down the differences. The only point that I think I disagree with you on is your assertion that most viral videos are done by amateurs. While there are some great examples (Chocolate Rain, etc), basically 90% of the most watched videos on YouTube are music videos. They have big budgets, high production values and big talent behind them. They clearly own the majority of the views.

“They get shared because viewers want to pass on these emotions with someone else they care about.”

Spot on. I think this is where companies can go wrong, they are too concerned with trying to sell their product, instead of connecting through emotion.. people disengage if they feel obvious advertising!

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I think your definitions are spot on. Even though some branded videos will become viral. I think most viral videos are mostly impromtu/off the cuff type videos. Should we define a viral video with a specific # of views on YouTube?

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